


Unpleasant Truths

by hellowkatey



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [17]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series - Jude Watson & Dave Wolverton, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Mentioned Padmé Amidala, Mentioned Qui-Gon Jinn, Mentioned Satine Kryze, Qui-Gon Jinn's A+ Parenting, Some Humor, Talking, Truth Serum, Young Obi-Wan Kenobi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29521479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellowkatey/pseuds/hellowkatey
Summary: Obi-Wan and Anakin are stuck in a room with one another while waiting for truth serum to wear off.[Febuwhump day 17: truth serum (alt1)]
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138259
Comments: 8
Kudos: 145





	Unpleasant Truths

Anakin opens his mouth to say something but is immediately interrupted.

"Nope," Obi-Wan says with a swift shake of the head that makes a tendril of hair fall into his face. "Not a word, Anakin." 

"Oh come on, Master." 

"Not. A. Word." 

"Do we have anything better to do?" 

"Well, no," Obi-Wan says, and then cringes. Anakin has a feeling that wasn't the answer he wanted to give.

Anakin and Obi-Wan sit in adjacent beds of the med bay aboard _The Resolute_. There was only one private exam room left for them to take up, so they opted to share. While they aren't particularly hurt-- no more than any usual battle-- they _were_ captured and exposed to a particularly potent truth serum. Nobody is really sure what to do with them. Least of all, one another. Anakin supposes his former master figured the lesser evil was to lock them in a room together-- no secrets accidentally being revealed to those without clearance. 

However, they don't know how long this serum is supposed to last. They're waiting for Kix to come back with bloodwork.

"How will we know when it's worn off if we don't ask questions?" Anakin suggests. Obi-Wan doesn't look in the least bit amused. 

"Because I know you. You're going to ask about things that amuse you or that you want to be nosy about," he raises an eyebrow. "Isn't that right?" 

The knight swallows hard, the truth on the tip of his tongue. Of course, he is powerless in preventing it from slipping. 

"Yes," he mutters. 

"So no talking. We will wait for labs." 

"You're no fun," Anakin lays back on the bed and points over at him. "And you _know_ I'm telling the truth about that." 

They sit in the prescribed silence for an hour or so before the door opens and Kix comes strolling in with a datapad and a set of IVs. 

"Hello generals, how are we doing?" 

"Not ideal," Obi-Wan says. 

"Bored," Anakin chimes in. Kix looks a tad caught off guard-- maybe not used to them answering so truthfully about their condition. His brown eyes flicker between them before he decides to just give them the report. 

"So the good news is the serum appears to be non-lethal. We just have to wait for it to filter out of your systems." 

"I assume there is bad news then?" Obi-Wan asks. 

"Well... the problem is, it embeds itself into the brain and spinal fluid. I have no way of knowing how long it will be in effect without doing an unnecessarily invasive procedure." 

"Well that's..." Obi-Wan trails off, glancing at Anakin. "disappointing."

"Do you have a guess on how long, Kix?" 

He seems to wager this in his head. "Six hours? More or less." 

_Great. There goes my afternoon._

Kix excuses himself, promises to return if they learn anymore. As soon as he's out the door, Obi-Wan lays back, letting his head fall against the pillow, and lets out an exacerbated sigh. Anakin can feel him in the beginnings of meditation, the Force around them drawing into his presence and making it shine like a beacon. And then it releases, and Obi-Wan groans again. 

"What's wrong?" 

"This blasted drug is muddying up the Force. I can't concentrate." 

"Oh no, you might have to spend the next six hours actually conscious," Anakin rolls his eyes.

"Meditating passes the time." 

"Talking passes the time." 

" _Anakin_ ," he sighs. 

"Oh yes, what a tragedy to spend time with me." 

The Jedi Master looks at him now, his eyebrows knit together. "I like spending time with you, Anakin. Do you think I don't?" 

"Well... yeah."

"What could make you think that?" 

He bites on his tongue, knowing fully well it won't help a thing. "You... dismiss me. Or seem annoyed by me. Or... I don't know... treat me like I'm still a little kid." 

The truth falls heavy between them, and suddenly Anakin wishes they'd stuck to the code of silence. Obi-Wan's face shifts into something that he can only categorize as devastation. Even though it's _true_ that he feels that sometimes his master wants nothing to do with him, he never wanted him to _know_ that. 

"Anakin... I'm sorry," he says softly, his eyes trained intensely on him. "I didn't realize..." 

"Obi-Wan, don't apologize. I guess... I wanted what you and Qui-Gon had." He remembers fondly the brief memories of a young padawan Obi-Wan and his master. The little looks they had that meant more than they seemed. The inside jokes and synergy when they fought alongside one another. Anakin thinks he and Obi-Wan have some of that. They are two parts of a deadly machine on the battlefield, and they share their own little jokes but sometimes there's just this disconnect. Like he trusts him with his life, but not with the secret of his wife. He doesn't think it's supposed to be this way. 

But surprisingly, Obi-Wan stiffens at his comment. Anakin wonders if the serum also makes his body language more readable because he's never seen his master so expressive. "What Qui-Gon and I... Anakin when you told me you thought I didn't like spending time with you, it made me worried that I had grown to be _too much_ like Qui-Gon." 

"What do you mean?" 

He stares off into space a moment. Obviously fighting against the serum, which only makes Anakin more worried about his answer. Never has he _ever_ heard a bad word about Master Jinn, so he isn't sure what it could have been. 

"Qui-Gon and I... had a rocky relationship. He didn't want another padawan, but Yoda was quite insistent. He took me, it was a long time before he accepted me." 

"Then... how did you become his padawan?" 

"I... well to make a long story short I was willing to detonate a bomb that would kill me but save the agricorps settlement, and I suppose he took that as reassurance I wouldn't let him down," Obi-Wan presses his lips together. "Too bad he was wrong about that." 

Now Anakin is sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at his master with confusion. "What do you mean he was wrong?" 

"Well, I did leave the order shortly after, which thoroughly shattered his expectations."

"Wait, _what_?" There is just... _so much_ to unpack in the few things he just revealed. But Obi-Wan looks at him with a face that pleas him to stop. So Anakin relaxes, holding in the urge to ask more questions. "Will you tell me about this when we aren't under truth serum?" 

"Yes," he answers. Definitively. Without hesitation. So Anakin nods and sits back on the bed, his head still whirring with questions. 

"Can I... ask why you felt Qui-Gon didn't like you? I always thought-- I don't know, that you guys were a team." 

He crosses his arms over his chest, focusing on an invisible spot on the ceiling. "We had different ideas of how to do things. That's why Yoda wanted us together. I was an angry and headstrong youngling, and he was a rebel the council needed to find a way to reel in." 

Anakin scoffs. "You? Angry?" 

A small smile appears on his face. "I packed a nasty right hook in my initiate days. So when I was faced with a Master who disregarded the rules, I assumed the role of the logical rule follower." 

"And then you never gave up that role." 

"I had _punk_ for a padawan, what else was I to do?" 

Anakin looks down at his lap, a small smile on his face. 

"Is this why you don't talk about your padawan years very often?" 

"The memory of Qui-Gon is... painful. As are many of the experiences I had as a child," he winces. 

_Well, this is depressing_ , Anakin thinks, wishing he could ask more but he knows it would be wrong to do so. The mystery of Obi-Wan's past has suddenly been blown right open and he isn't quite sure what to make of it. Left the order? Denied by Qui-Gon? In his head, he had this image of his tiny master, fresh-faced and spouting off Jedi Code at every chance. 

"Why does nobody ever talk about that stuff?" Anakin asks, wondering how he's gone over a decade as a Jedi without hearing a word about his master's unusual apprenticeship. 

"It wasn't widely known. The council and a few others," Obi-wan stares at him, sadness in his eyes. "But there is no honor in tainting the reputation of the dead." 

"But you..." Anakin lets out a shaky breath. "I talked about him _all the time._ And you never told me?"

"Qui-Gon... was your hero. He saved you, and I- I didn't want that to change for you," he pauses, his face paler now. "Anakin, he wasn't a bad man. He was great Jedi, deeply caring for others and a fantastic master-- I have no doubt had he lived, you two would have made a powerful... and troublesome pair." 

Anakin isn't sure what to say about it. He is ashamed of the number of times he was mad at his master and wished a different reality for himself. He doesn't even know the entire extent of whatever Obi-Wan is referring to, but somehow he just... knows.

He's heard rumors before. The story of the Jedi Master who gave up his padawan to train a new initiate he thought was promising. The padawans considered it a horror story to tell when they snuck out of their rooms at night to walk the darkened halls. It took Anakin longer than he's willing to admit to realize the story was about him and Master Jinn's dismissal of Obi-Wan. The way Anakin remembered it was he declared Obi-Wan ready to be a knight and that he would then be free to take Anakin. 

Apparently, that wasn't the case. He didn't understand the gravity of the gesture then, and never really thought about it too hard after. 

But now... now he thinks about that story again-- that apparently Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had issues in the past-- and maybe there was _a lot_ more there than he even knows. 

"When this is over, will you tell me everything, Master?" 

"No," he says. No hesitation or waver in his voice. 

"No?" 

"There are some things I can't tell you." 

"But why?" 

To Anakin's surprise, he chuckles. "I am allowed my secrets, just as you are allowed yours." 

This, of course, sends Anakin into a bit of internal panic. _Is he just assuming I also have secrets or... does he know?_

"I guess... that's fair." 

"When this is over we will rest, and then I will tell you some things about my apprenticeship. And you may ask whatever questions you have then." 

He supposes that's good enough. The nice thing about truth serum is he knows Obi-Wan isn't making empty promises. They leave things there for a while, Anakin falling asleep for a bit, and when he awakes, it's Obi-Wan who is surprisingly dozing off. Five hours pass. Anakin has moved to the end of Obi-Wan's bed to lay diagonally across it on his stomach, and Obi-Wan sits cross-legged against the headboard. 

"Have you ever been in love, Master?" Anakin asks, looking up expecting a slap to the back of the head for such a question, but instead Obi-Wan smiles a little bit. 

"Would it surprise you if I said yes?" 

"Is that a yes?" 

"Yes, it is." 

Anakin blinks. He had his suspicions, but to hear it aloud... 

"The Duchess?" 

"Yes." 

"And others?" 

"A few." 

" _A few?_ "

He chuckles. 

"To love is not prohibited, it is to put such love ahead of one's duty."

He's never thought about it like that. 

"Have you been in love, Anakin?" 

"Yes," he says. _I'm in love,_ he thinks to himself. 

Obi-Wan hesitates a moment, looking down at him with uncertainty that Anakin thinks he knows the source of. He supposes it's only fair, he's dug into his past relentlessly the past few hours but... his wife isn't just his past, she's his present. His future. Though a part of him wants to tell Obi-Wan about her more than anything, a part of him also knows that his knowing will put him in a horrible position with the council. The secret will undoubtedly come out, and he will be expelled from the Order or be forced to give her up. And nothing can make him give Padmé up.

"Padmé?" 

Anakin looks at him. The neutrality of his face just makes him more nervous. He looks his former master dead in the eye. 

"Padmé and I... are only close friends, Master." 

Obi-Wan nods. Anakin hides his stress by burying his face in the comforter. 

_Well... looks like the serum has worn off._

Anakin decides to wait another half an hour before he lets Obi-Wan know that, though. Just to be safe. 

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little scene for today. I probably won't add to this one, but I always love a good "Anakin finds out about Obi-Wan's crappy childhood" so you can read about that in my other works 'Memories Time nor Sith Can Erase' and 'Campfire Tales'.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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